


Admiring The Hawk

by tielan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Beginnings, Gen, Mentors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 01:06:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4857374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peggy has always encouraged women of extraordinary talent - so many of them, but not half enough.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Admiring The Hawk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [paperclipbitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperclipbitch/gifts).



_It’s only the men truly admire the hawk in me._

_~ Sister Magdalen, "Brother Cadfael Chronicles" ~_

The phrase ‘slip of a girl’ has been used far too often around Peggy Carter in her lifetime for her to be particularly comfortable with the usage. However, when looking at Private Hill, she reflects that the term is not entirely incorrect. Even if the ‘slip’ has some very sleek muscle on her frame, she’s still pretty much a bantamweight.

Rather like someone else Peggy remembers from long ago.

Jim Morita bows out of the room with a florid handwave and a twinkling wink. He’ll be back later to give his estimation of the Madripoor situation and Peggy will enjoy the company of an old friend, and gossip about exactly the kind of shitfit Alex Pierce is going to throw at losing a city that the U.S could have used as a base of operations through Asia.

Someone really needs to remind Ambassador Pierce about Vietnam.

However, America’s geopolitical ambitions in this part of the world are not Peggy’s immediate concern. S.H.I.E.L.D is. So, too, is this young woman who sits, chin up, shoulders back, with nothing more than the careful mask to betray her unease at being called in to see Peggy.

Peggy knows about ‘the mask’; she used it often enough in her years with the SSR and then in S.H.I.E.L.D’s top position. Clearly, the Marines gave Private Hill a full and thorough training in poker face. Which is good, because Hill is going to need it where Peggy’s going to point her.

“I imagine you’ve already been given the full interrogation treatment, Private Hill,” she says, and wishes for the crisp voice that used to bite out commands and now can only rasp. “I’m not here to finish the job.”

She sees the hesitation flicker in the blue eyes before the young woman decides she’s in the middle of the rapids, she might as well throw her oars overboard. “I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am.”

“Really?”

“From what I’m hearing around here, your criticism might actually be worth something.”

There’s a moment when Peggy can’t think for astonishment. Then she laughs. “And that reply, Private, is why I’m not going to bother interrogating you. You have an excellent sense of judgement and a willingness to take managed risk – two things that S.H.I.E.L.D could very much do with right now.”

It’s the young woman’s turn to stare. “You’re recruiting me. For S.H.I.E.L.D.” The noise she makes could most politely be called ‘a snort’. “With all due respect, Director, your agents look at me as though I’m shit on their shoes. I just handed a major geopolitical resource over to a family with assorted criminal affiliations rather than give it into S.H.I.E.L.D’s hands. And you want me to…I don’t even know what SHIELD does for recruitment. Boot Camp? Basic Training?”

“Operations Academy.” The eyeroll is delightful and warming. Spirit and snark and determination – oh, yes. Peggy is extremely reassured to find that she hasn’t lost the ability to pick a predator out of the barnyard fowl. Now if she can only persuade this young eyas to spread her wings! “Their next intake will be the spring class. And yes, I’m recruiting you for S.H.I.E.L.D for precisely that reason.”

The retort flickers in Hill’s eye before she damps it down. “Say it,” Peggy orders.

“They told me you’d been diagnosed with Alzheimers, not stupidity.”

Should that hurt more than it does? Peggy decides she’ll think about that later. Right now, she’s more amused than offended. “They’re quite correct, Private. And the days when I ran S.H.I.E.L.D are long gone. But, I still have some cachet, and, for the moment at least, they’ll take my recommendation at the S.H.I.E.L.D Operations Academy in lieu of an active field agent willing to sponsor your entry.”

Hill considers it for a moment, then shakes her head. “I’m a marine—”

“You’ve trained as a marine. That doesn’t make you one. You applied for SEAL training; they’ve knocked you back, although your results are within parameter, and you’re willing to accept no special exceptions.”

“I’m a woman. That makes me a liability.”

“Not to S.H.I.E.L.D.” Peggy says that with confidence. “Not beyond what we casually experience by idiots who’ve never had someone dismiss their opinion just because we can’t whip out our dicks and measure them. And we’re changing that. It’s not perfect. I’m realist enough to recognise that maybe it never will be. But we’re working on it. And SHIELD will give you a damn sight more leeway than the Marines will. Or else you stay where you are, can work communications and weapons targeting, keep your head down, and never have the chance to be all that you can be.”

“That’s the Army slogan.”

Peggy shrugs and ignores the twinge in her shoulder, the numbness in her thigh. “But it’s the same thing, isn’t it? They see us as _women_ , not assets to their organisation. That’s why I started SHIELD in the first place. Well, one of the reasons.”

“I suspect ‘counter-terrorism and intelligence gathering’ may have had a little to do with it.” Hill’s stiffness eases, just a fraction. It’s a small movement, but Peggy’s spent a lifetime learning to read people – what they say when their mouths aren’t even moving. “You really think I’d survive in S.H.I.E.L.D?”

Peggy knows she’s won the young woman over then. The hint of wistfulness, of yearning for the _more_ she could be – that’s what it’s like to hope, to believe that there might be something greater than scratching in the dirt.

And there is. There’s a whole sky in which for this young woman to fly – like the other women Peggy has encouraged to soar before her. So many and not half enough, but she’s only ever been able to do what she can do. And she won’t be able to do even this little bit for much longer.

In the end, though, Peggy can give this little hawk the boost into the air that she needs – the last one. And, if her instincts are correct, one of the best.

“Private,” she says, because Maria Hill, soon-to-be agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, is waiting, “If I’m any judge of character, you won’t just survive, you’ll _soar_.”


End file.
